This is Le Succes from RHC. The cake is pretty easy to make.
Challenge: Unmolding the meringue from the pan. Rose said to be careful as it is soft and can easily break. Well, I lack both patience and a light touch, 2 out of 3 tore in places. The good thing is that everything will be covered up in ganache so the mistakes are not noticeable .

Change: I used the decaf instant coffee from Starbucks instead of the instant lemon tea since it’s what I have in stock. This results in the ganache smelling pretty strong of coffee, though the taste is not that strong. It’s really good though. Other bloggers said that the tea taste is pretty subtle, so I imagine that my coffee version taste stronger.

Tasting impression: The cake is pretty good. I like the almond bits in the meringue, and that it’s not completely smooth. I also love the ganache - I find the creme fraiche add some tartness and balance the sweetness in the chocolate nicely. I wonder if I can use creme fraiche going forward for ganache. One thing I want to note is that I find there’s a little too much ganache in proportion to the rest of the cake, next time maybe I’ll try less ganache.

Lastly, I finally got around to trying to improve my cake-photography skills. I baked this on Saturday so I can take the pictures during the day on Sunday, .

Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments.
Jan - I don’t have a passion for chocolate, do you like the book? Does it have many different recipes? A fellow blogger said that it use a lot of this meringue with ground almonds. I did contemplate making just plain ganache but thought I should try something new, hence the coffee powder .
Rozanne - Do try it with coffee if you are a coffee person.
Hector - this is what’s wonderful about the bake-a-long, it gives opportunity (or shall I say encouragement) for amateur bakers like me to try something that I would otherwise not try. Though this Le Succes did intrigue me when I got the book! I should look for your take. Did you post it on your website?
Julie - make this soon .

I should add to my tasting impression - on 2nd day (cake was refrigerated then took out for several hours before consumption) - the coffee smell is gone but the coffee taste remains. It is like a truffle with a little crunch, I feel like the ganache melt in my mouth .

and i do start by saying and puzzling about using lemon tea on the ganache. we tried different versions, and i must say that the lemon tea version was SUPERB. i stepped local tea leaves and used lemon oil. instant lemon tea would be just fine, too.

Welcome back Silke and thanks! I wonder if yours was probably too much with lemon zest. Several HCB bakers used infused tea bags and they reported good taste. Where is your version of Le Succes? Did you not post it?